Raising Anti

40

The front door slammed shut startling the few still at the house as they ran out to see Chase stagger towards the stairs. Chase paused for a moment, glancing back at the host before scoffing and continuing his path.

"Wait, Chase!" Jack called out as he gestured for Marvin and Jamie to stay there. He raced after the father only to falter as he watched Chase pull out a suitcase from the closet. "Chase?"

"I'm leaving."

"Wait, Why?!" Chase frowned as he tried to ignore the shocked look in Jack's eyes, focusing solely on packing up all his clothes. "Chase, you need to answer me." Jack stood there frozen as Chase reached under his bed pulling out this large lockbox. He opened it revealing several different handguns making the host tense up. Chase was quick to remove every weapon he had expertly hidden around the room putting them all back into the lockbox before locking it all up and removing a floorboard to hide the box away again. "Chase?"

"Jack, what do you want me to say?" Chase laughed as he waved the host off, placing the board back before going to his dresser to pull out anything he had brought there with him. His eyes met with one of Anti's masks and he crashed leaning against the dresser refusing to let himself cry in front of Jack. "I'm going home."

"Chase please talk to me. Explain to me what happened. You were so adamant that you wouldn't attack him..."

"I WASN'T ATTACKING HIM, JACK!" Jack jumped back seeing the pure anger in his sharpshooter, who just growled at him. "I wasn't trying to kill Anti. I WAS TRYING TO KILL YOU!"

"What?" Jack paled as Chase groaned as he raked his hands through his hair trying to ground himself. The last thing he needed was to snap and resume earlier's attempt. "You... Me? Really?"

"It's your fucking fault." Jack's eyes went wide finally noticing the tears building in Chase's eyes who once again turned back to packing. "You should have told me. I NEEDED that information!"

"You came to kill him!" Chase flinched before whipping around to face the host with this burning look. 

"You made me to be a father, Jack." Jack's eyes narrowed as Chase shrugged in defeat. "YOU made me to be a father. I'm physically incapable of even THINKING about hurting a child. The fact that I even have to reassure people of that. I can't hurt a kid... even if they are a demon. Anti was safe... this entire time... he would have been safe."

"I didn't know that." Chase laughed as he just broke down more.

"It should have been common knowledge. You're my host. You should've have known. But instead, you chose to withhold information that could have helped Anti in the long run. Jack... HE'S EXACTLY LIKE ME! I could have helped him so much more had I known who the FUCK he was. You made that choice. YOU KNEW! You knew..."

"Chase..."

"You knew." Chase repeated as he pointed at the host, his tears finally falling. "You didn't tell me and because of that, it wasn't just me who ended up getting hurt. Anti and I BOTH suffered because of that decision. So you're damn right I snapped... You're damn right I tried to kill you. It was YOUR fault... I didn't deserve that..." Chase's eyes flashed yellow as he zipped his suitcase up and shook his head angrily. "...SAM... Sam didn't deserve that." Chase stormed out of the room bag in hand as he practically slid down the stairs.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa... what's going on?" Marvin jumped seeing Chase race down only to pale as the father turned his attention to him. Chase simply held his hand out with this knowing glare making Marvin tense. "Chase..."

"I know you did something to it. You always take it upon yourself to take measures to... prevent further fuck ups. I don't care." Marvin's eyes narrowed as Chase gestured with his hand. "Give me my gun, Marvin."

"Jack?" Marvin hesitated as Jack just nodded with a look of exhaustion they could all feel.

"Just give it to him, Marv." Marvin sighed as he held his hand out summoning the gun in a flash of color. Chase took it in his hands and frowned looking it over. His eyes went yellow as his eyes narrowed homing in slightly on the trigger, before quirking an eyebrow up at the magician. 

"Let me guess an automatic shut off?"

"Of sorts." Marvin muttered as Chase held it up and checked the trigger. Chase growled as he swiftly cocked it and pointed it at Jack pulling the trigger before anyone could even flinch. "CHASE?!"

"I take it you made it so it wouldn't fire at any Septic." Chase numbly looked over at Marvin as he holstered his gun. "Considering you all thought I was trying to kill Anti... The fact that it didn't shoot Jack well..."

"You could have just killed the host?! For what?!" Marvin was completely stunned out of his mind. "To see how the spell worked? You could have just asked me."

"No, see that's where you're wrong." Chase just smiled as he grabbed his bag and glared over at Jack. "I shot at the host because I wanted to." Marvin paled as Chase growled. "He's the one I wanted to kill. And frankly right now... I couldn't really care less. I'm leaving..." Chase started for the door only to jump back as it slammed open. Jackie stood there panting, an exhaustedly drain and disheveled mess. JJ rushed over helping in as Jackie practically collapsed into him unable to support himself. In his panic, he couldn't control his power. He ended up draining himself completely just getting home as fast as he did. 

"Jackie... Jackie, what's wrong?" Jack took a step forward as JJ went full nurse trying to help the hero out. Chase just stood there stock-still as his eyes met with the hat and stuffed cat. Jackie met his eyes and everything crashed in the father.

"I'm sorry... Something..." Jackie groaned as he lost nearly all his strength causing him to drop the items onto the floor. "Something happened to the boys."